Irresistible Lies
by PPM
Summary: What if Terra were an original part of the Titans, and Beast Boy the newcomer? AU, BBTerra. Chapter six up. This story is complete.
1. Beast Boy

The premise for this fic came to me in a dream involving the other Titans as statues – I chalk that up to having watched Birthmark a few hours prior. Anyway, I began wondering: What if Terra were originally part of the Titans and Beast Boy were the newcomer? With that thought in mind, I bring you my first official AU fic: Irresistible Lies.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Titans. Not in this universe; not in any universe.

* * *

"Titans! Go!" the Boy Wonder shouted. 

Nobody sprung into action, though, because he was in his room with the door closed.

"No. That's getting old," he said in a normal speaking volume. "How about…hmm." His masked eyes widened and he filled his lungs as he prepared to shout again. "Titans! Trouble!" He grimaced. "No. Alliteration is bad. I'm a superhero, not a poet." Placing one finger to his temple, Robin thought intensely for a new standard call to action. He had the first half; it never changed. It was just the verb that got him.

"Titans! Move!" He didn't like it. He would probably never like it. Not until it was just perfect. It didn't help much that he could only think of a few appropriate words to accompany "Titans". Sighing with defeat, he slumped down on his bed.

"How does 'Titans! Same as always!' sound?" a high voice floated in from the threshold. Robin jerked up, again with wide eyes.

"Terra!"

The girl walked further into the room and approached his bedside. "I knocked." She smiled and laughed a little at Robin, who now was about as red as his suit. He hated being caught practicing. "You probably didn't hear me."

"I'm being that loud?"

"'Loud' doesn't even begin to describe it." His hue deepened upon hearing Terra say that. "Star's still asking where the trouble is and why you aren't there to help her."

Robin's nose started bleeding from having so much blood collect in his face – and _only _in his face. "I'll tell her it's all right."

"You do that." Terra turned and started to walk out of his room, but stopped herself when he called her name. "Yeah, Robin?"

"How about, 'Titans! Out!'?" he asked hopefully.

"Don't quit your day job," she joked, then walked away, letting Robin's door close automatically behind her.

«IL»

A klaxon blared through the Tower as a situation appeared on the main screen: Mumbo "the Magnificent" was terrorizing the zoo, turning every last animal into a rabbit. Cyborg saw it first and pulled everyone out of what they were doing before Robin could come along.

"Titans!" Robin began, running into the main room. He stopped and frowned when he saw that Cyborg, accompanied by Raven in the passenger seat of the T-Car and Terra and Starfire flying above it, had left before he could tell them that there was, in fact, trouble. As if the siren weren't enough of an alert. He sighed again and, after a bit of walking, jumped onto his motorcycle and sped off to join the others.

«IL»

"Thanks a lot, guys," Robin muttered with a hint of bitterness as he dismounted his cycle.

"Rob, chill. We're here," Cyborg insisted, getting out of his car. Raven closed the door on her side and joined Starfire and Terra in looking through the zoo gates with bizarre expressions. Eventually, Robin and Cyborg joined them.

Every animal in the zoo had been released from its respective cage. The gorillas were gone; the ferrets free; the elephants escaped. And, thanks to a masked, blue-skinned man with a black wand and top hat, the rabbits were rather rampant. Mumbo was pointing his wand at the zookeeper, tied up in multicoloured ribbons, and, as villains are wont to do, proclaiming his plans loudly.

"I'll bring back your animals if you give me all the ticket proceeds!"

Robin only had to nod for the Titans to enter the zoo grounds and get into proper formation for a dramatic entry. As soon as they were aligned, the Boy Wonder let fly his words. "That's a load of mumbo jumbo, and you know it!"

The mad magician looked at Robin and wrinkled his nose. "I think you just laid an egg!" No sooner had he finished saying that than two eggs erupted from the tip of his wand and slammed against Robin's face. Though his eyes were now sunny-side up, his frown of humiliation was entirely the opposite. Wiping the egg from his face with one hand, he pointed at Mumbo with the other and gave his orders. "Titans! Go!"

Six orbs of green, black, and yellow surrounded three pairs of hands. With a wave of his magic stick, though, Mumbo transformed those powerful glows into inflatable boxing gloves, leaving the trio of girls very confused. However, Terra noticed something even more odd: One of the many, many white rabbits frolicking about the feet of the zookeeper and the street magician was very noticeably not white, but green. It was also manouevreing around the others of its kind to reach Mumbo's backside. She arched an eyebrow. She then arched the other eyebrow as her eyes widened from the sheer bizarreness of what she was watching.

"Yaaaagh!" Mumbo yelped, half in pain, half in surprise. Pivoting on one foot, he spun around and bumped his abnormally large nose into the chest of a quite large and quite green gorilla. Before the magician could raise his wand, one massive monkey fist sent it spinning to the feet of Robin, who was far from the only one to have joined Terra in watching the spectacle. The second of the gorilla's powerful fists caught Mumbo under the jaw, sending him spinning to Robin's feet in a similar fashion. The gorilla then transformed himself into a very green teenage boy, a little on the scrawny side, wearing a purple-and-black getup.

The boy cast his eyes about the five heroes, then at Mumbo, then at the heroes again. Aside from Mumbo, who wasn't going to be seeing much of anything for a while, the others' eyes just stayed fixed on the changeling teen. "Well?" the boy asked to break the silence. "What are you waiting for? Snap his wand. That'll fix everything."

Robin shook his head back and forth quickly, then picked up Mumbo's wand and put it in a pouch in his belt. From another pouch, he took out a pair of handcuffs and clasped them around the knocked-out magician's wrists. Looking up, he began his regular line of questioning, though his tone was not the menacing one he would use on someone like Slade; it was confused and curious, instead. "Who are you?"

"I thought you'd never ask." The green teen smirked. "I'm Beast Boy!" The smirk spread into a self-appreciative smile that easily covered half his face. "I think you can figure out what I can do. And you. You're the Teen Titans." He pointed to each one in turn. "Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, and Terra. It's great to finally meet you all!"

"Well, Beast Boy, thanks for your help. But," Robin questioned, "how do you know snapping his wand will work?"

"Of course it'll work! Snapping wands always gets rid of the magic! I saw it in a movie once."

"Wicked Scary II: Magic Attack," Terra cited the name of the movie that she was sure Beast Boy meant.

"That's right! Terra, _you _watch Wicked Scary?" To Beast Boy's incredulous reply at her aptitude, Terra could only blush in response.

"I think we could use someone like you on the team," Robin offered. He looked around to the other Titans. Cyborg just nodded. Starfire could barely contain her glee at getting a new friend – it was all she could do to keep from hugging Beast Boy's internal organs to dust, the Boy Wonder figured. Terra's face stayed red, but the smile underneath the blush told Robin that she was in agreement. Only Raven seemed reluctant. She neither smiled nor nodded; in fact, she gave no indication of her opinion at all.

Robin looked back at Beast Boy, whose eyes could have taken up easily three-quarters of his face from his eager anticipation. "Looks like you're in." Before the new Titan could react appropriately, Starfire's arms, still truncated with air-filled mitts, were around him and squeezing him in places in which he would rather not have been squeezed.

"Oh, new friend! Come! I shall prepare a traditional Tamaranean _blorthar_, the crown of meat and friendship!"

Beast Boy made a quick change from human to ant, then back to human, so he could escape Starfire's grip and breathe again, then replied. "Thanks, Starfire, but no thanks. I don't touch meat. I've _been _most of those animals. Now, if you have a crown of tofu, we could talk."

The authorities, sometime between the Titans and Beast Boy apprehending Mumbo and Starfire crushing Beast Boy's organs, had finally arrived. As they picked up the unconscious magician and locked him in their paddy wagon, Beast Boy bridged the gap between himself and the Titans and joined them.

"So do I get cool gadgets and stuff now?"

"We'll sort that out when we get back to the Tower," Robin confirmed.

"Welcome to the team, Beast Boy," Terra commented sweetly.


	2. Seriously

Author's Notes: I love the "throwaway" villains in Teen Titans. They're so much fun. Mumbo, Johnny Rancid, Mad Mod, Killer Moth, Dr. Light, Jinx, Control Freak... And they're all excellent. And if that doesn't tip you off as to what this chapter will cover, nothing will. 

Disclaimer: I don't own the Titans, but I do own a three-inch-tall replica of Beast Boy. It's not a doll; it's an _action figure_. Don't look at me like that!

* * *

The newly expanded Teen Titans were, for a change, taking a leisurely trip home. The R-Cycle had been strapped to the top of the T-Car, outside of which flew Raven and Starfire. The remaining four were inside the automobile: Robin and Cyborg in the front and Beast Boy and Terra in the back.

"So...what kind of cool stuff do I get? Like Birdarangs and freeze bombs and lasers and stuff?" Beast Boy mimicked the sound of lasers being fired to punctuate his hopeful excitement.

Terra and Robin laughed at that, and the latter responded, "Slow down, Beast Boy. Most of that's my stuff. Besides, you don't need weapons, do you? You _are _a weapon."

"Robin!" the blonde protested, moving closer to Beast Boy. She said nothing else, but shot her leader a glare that could have turned him to stone.

"No, Terra," Beast Boy mumbled, blushing. "It's...it's cool, really."

The conversation fell into uncomfortable silence that, despite the unspoken intentions of Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy, could not be broken. The remainder of the ride was without notable incident; however, Terra's glare never wavered and she never left Beast Boy's side until the six Titans reached their Tower.

«IL»

"It's gonna take me a while to get your room ready," Cyborg commented as Robin handed Beast Boy a communicator. "'Til then, you can share a room with someone else."

"Oh, friend Beast Boy! Take up the lodging with me and we shall stay awake through the night sharing tales, eating _zorka _berries, and playing the _gorka_ pipes while singing traditional Tamaranean folk songs!"

The other Titans looked at Beast Boy with a severe thought in each of their minds: _"You'd better not room with Star."_

Beast Boy looked at Starfire oddly. "Uhm, thanks but no thanks, Starfire." Before he could even turn around to face Terra, she volunteered.

"You wanna room with me, BB?" The new Titan's answer came unspoken, but it gave the others a good idea of what colour one gets when red and green are mixed. "Okay, come on," she beckoned. "I'll show you around the place."

"Wait, Beast Boy." Robin insisted, which made both Terra and Beast Boy stop in their places and turn to face him. "I'm sorry about what I said to you in the car."

"Robin, chill. I told you it was cool." He turned back. "Let's go, Terra."

The Boy Wonder, not feeling very wonderful at all, just watched them walk out of the communications room.

«IL»

"Welcome to my room, Beast Boy," Terra announced. "You can take my bed until Cy gets your room made up. I'll sleep on the couch."

Looking between the brown-sheeted bed that was all too large for him and the semicircular couch on which she could never have been comfortable, Beast Boy declined. "I'll take the couch. It's your room and all; you take the bed."

"You sure?" Beast Boy nodded. "Okay then. There's the computer on the table over there," she motioned to the couch, which surrounded the table she mentioned. "It's got the Internet if you need it. And that's pretty much the tour."

"Cool. So..." He trailed off and slowly looked down to the floor.

"You alright, Beast Boy?"

Before he could give an answer, their communicators went off. Terra opened hers before Beast Boy even realised what the noise was and, almost as quickly, started running out of the room.

"What's up, Terra?"

"Trouble. You coming?"

He nodded and followed.

«IL»

A vault door exploded off its hinges after two arcs of pink energy hit it. The sorceress responsible for the destruction entered the vault that she had just opened. Her eyes sparkled like the diamonds and gold to which she had allowed herself access. She slung a small sack from her shoulder and began filling it with precious stones and metals. _"I'll be set for life,"_ she thought happily.

"Tough luck, Jinx!" came Robin's voice from behind her.

The sorceress gasped and turned her head over her shoulder, then smiled slyly. "Nice try, Robin, but the bad luck is yours today." Putting her bag of loot down, she waved one arm in an arc and sent another wave of cursed pink energy at the Titans.

"Titans! Break!" Robin barked. The six split into three pairs – Robin and Cyborg, Raven and Starfire, and Terra and Beast Boy – and began a sequence of three attacks on the pink-haired sorceress. The wave crashed seconds after the break and shattered a glass door into countless shards.

As the Tamaranean flung Star Bolts at Jinx, Raven surrounded the destroyed vault door with black power and threw it at her foe. With astounding agility – doubly so because she was in such a small and confined area – Jinx dodged every last Star Bolt with simple strides and, without even flinching, swept both her arms in front of her and let fly a massive curse that destroyed the projectile door upon contact.

Raven and Starfire backed out and allowed Robin and Cyborg to attack. The metal man looked at his friend and implied his plan. "I've got the sonic if you've got the boom." Robin nodded and the two moved into formation. Again Jinx waved her arms in front of her, but this time she sent out two curses: one directed at each wall.

The segment of wall on which each of the two were running exploded in front of them, causing Cyborg to falter and fire his Sonic Cannon at another closed vault, which left a small though very noticeable hole in the door. Robin also stumbled, accidentally dropping his bombs in front of Beast Boy. The resulting explosion knocked the changeling back into the vault that Cyborg had opened.

«IL»

Before Beast Boy knew what was going on, all light disappeared. He could no longer see his friends, though he could hear the sounds of the battle outside.

He could hear something else, too. No – not some_thing_. Some_one_. Someone saying something in his head.

"Hello, Garfield."

The voice wasn't in his head. There was someone else in the vault with him, blocking the hole in the door with his body. "Who are you?" he asked the darkness.

"I've been watching you, Garfield," the eerily calm voice responded.

"How do you know my name? And what do you want?"

"I want to offer you something." The person shifted slightly and let a crack of light slip through. The light reflected off a jewel and shone on the person's face for only a second; still, Beast Boy could discern a glint of orange. The person moved back and the vault was dark once more. "They don't take you seriously, Garfield. They think you're a joke."

"That's not true! They accepted me!"

"Did they? Is that the reason you're in this vault right now?"

"That was an accident! Robin slipped!"

"Did he? Or does he think that you're not necessary for this fight? Listen to them." The voice stopped talking and let the sounds of the battle echo through the hole and to Beast Boy's ears. Jinx was screaming in protest and the sound of sirens was growing louder. "They've won. They've won without you."

"You're a liar! They want me! They wouldn't have let me in otherwise!" Beast Boy lunged out towards the door, trying to attack the voice, but as he reached where the voice was, light suddenly streamed in through the hole. He looked behind him to try to see who or what had been talking to him, but nobody was there.

Another voice began talking to him as the arm to which the voice belonged reached in through the hole. "Beast Boy? Are you alright?" Terra's face filled Beast Boy's vision when he looked through.

"Yeah. Yeah, Terra," he managed to say. He clambered out of the vault and dusted himself off as soon as he was back on his feet.

"Beast Boy," Robin started. "I'm sorry again. It was an—"

"Accident. I know. Thanks," he replied. "Now, come on. That fight must've made you all hungry. I know this great pizza place nearby. We'll celebrate!"

Starfire looked at him oddly. "But you said you do not eat the meat."

"I don't." He laughed. "Not everything on pizza is meat."

"You mean the napkin is not meat?"

"Dude, napkins aren't even toppings."

She looked confused, then blushed embarrassedly. "I would have liked to have been told that earlier."

Terra and Beast Boy laughed in unison with amusement rather than mockingly. Beast Boy insisted, "Come on. The cops can clear things up here." He looked at Jinx, who had been tied up in the cable of Robin's grappling hook. "Let's get something to eat!"

Robin nodded. "I think we could use some pizza." He looked out the glass doors and saw the familiar red and blue flashes directly outside. "The police are here. Sure, let's go." Two policemen entered, took Jinx by her arms, and filed out without saying anything. As the patrol car sped away, the Titans walked out of the bank.

"Yo, BB! Where's that pizza place?" Cyborg asked over his shoulder. There was no response. Cyborg stopped and turned around. "BB?"

Beast Boy was standing just inside of the bank, looking at the shards of broken glass: remnants of the battle in which he did not fight. _"Was he right?"_ he thought. _"**Do** they need me?"_

"Beast Boy!" Cyborg called.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm coming," he loudly mumbled and started walking. Careful though he was, he could not help but step on one piece of wayward glass and destroy it with his weight.


	3. Necessary

Disclaimer: The Titans aren't mine, but you already knew that.

* * *

"Yeah, hey, Armando," Beast Boy replied to the friendly greeting the man behind the counter had given him. "I'll have the usual, but these guys probably want to decide on their own." After making sure his partially Italian friend had his order down, he stepped to one side and let Cyborg, flanked by the other four, approach the counter. 

Armando's eyes went wide and he just gaped for a second before asking in disbelief, "Garfield…these are your friends?" The Titans, save Raven, smiled awkwardly; Beast Boy just nodded. "I know what you all want! I'll cook it up for you right away!"

Cyborg looked puzzled. "How do you already know what we want?"

Armando was positively beaming. "The Teen Titans are well-known in the pizza shops! We all talk to each other so we're all prepared for you!" As he wrote the words "_Teen Titans_" on his pad in a vaguely comprehensible scribble, he continued with a smile, "They'll never believe this!" Hanging the order in the queue behind him, he called over his shoulder, "Free of charge, Garfield!" That made Beast Boy smile with masked embarrassment, as he had no money with him in the first place. "It'll be ready in ten minutes."

Beast Boy beckoned the other five to join him at a table to the side of the counter, but did not even wait for them all to sit down before he began asking them about the exploit in the bank with a sort of boyish excitement in his eyes and voice. "Dudes! That sounded awesome! How did you guys do it?"

The Titans gave a group chuckle before Robin said, "Well, the break didn't work, so we just all came together and…well, the usual. You know about us; you know what I mean."

The newcomer, though it was true that he knew what Robin meant, could not resist the downward slide of his eyes towards the table. "Yeah, I guess I do." Bringing his eyes back up to meet Raven, sitting across from him, he tried changing the subject. "So what's next for the Teen Titans? Control Freak? Warp? The Game Master?" Seeing their confused looks, he continued. "They were bad guys back where I'm from, in Steel City."

"No, Beast Boy, nothing like that. We have bigger things to worry about," Robin said. "Titans, Jinx doesn't normally work alone. She's up to something."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Right. And I'm sure Mumbo had something to do with Slade, too."

The table, save Beast Boy, chuckled in agreement, and Cyborg added, "Really, man. We all know Slade's a big threat – a _really_ big threat – but not everybody's working for him."

Tired of being confused, Beast Boy cut in before Robin could say anything back to Cyborg. "Who's Slade?"

"He is a very bad man who made Robin do very bad things!" Starfire punctuated her simple statement with a nod, as if that were all that needed to be said about Slade.

"That's about right, actually. He keeps attacking the city," Robin began, "and he keeps getting away, no matter how much we fight. And we still don't know who he is or why he's after us." Everyone could hear the obsessed anger rising in his voice; it always came up when he was talking about Slade. "He's a madman and he must be sto—"

"Pizza's ready!" Armando said, preempting Robin's emotional explosion. Beast Boy turned in his seat and grabbed one his order from the counter while Armando served the rest to the Titans personally. He then left them to eat with a beaming smile on his face.

"Robin, Slade can wait for now," Terra said, taking a piece from the pan pizza Armando had brought. "For now, let's just eat. We'll worry about stopping him later." Robin sighed and mumbled something under his breath, but eventually reached for his slice and joined the others in lunch.

«IL»

"So what's Slade like, anyway? Horns? Guns? Helper guys?" In the T-Car on the way back to the Tower, Beast Boy was still asking questions about Slade. "Lasers or anything?"

Turning his head behind him to look at Beast Boy from the front seat, Robin answered, "He looks…normal. Tall, fit, agile…you know. Normal for a human. No special powers; no oddities or anything." He caught himself. "Well, aside from the mask."

Robin's description, though sparing, brought flashes of earlier that day into Beast Boy's head. He had not been able to completely make out the silhouette, but he assumed now that it was taller than he, and he knew that it had worn a mask of some sort. He felt ready to say just that to his new leader. "Uhm…Robin?"

"Yeah, Beast Boy?"

And all of the sudden, he no longer felt ready. He thought it would be in everyone's best interests if he made no mention of what had happened in the vault. How would they react if they knew he didn't completely trust them, he worried. "Erm, nevermind."

Robin looked at Beast Boy, confused, but just shrugged and turned back around in his seat. "Okay." The rest of the ride went on in uneasy silence until the six teens were back at their tower once more.

«IL»

"So what were you going to tell Robin earlier?" Terra asked casually, while she and Beast Boy were both in her room. The question came as a shock to the latter.

"Uhm, why? I mean, it really wasn't important or anything." He smiled nervously and placed one hand on the back of his neck. "Seriously. It was nothing."

Terra smiled back, understanding. "All right. If it's not something you want to say, you don't have to say it."

"I don't not want to say it!" Beast Boy protested, bringing his hand down hard onto his knee. "I just…"

"You just…?"

"I just don't think I _can_ tell you," he admitted. "I don't… I don't think I can."

"Beast Boy," Terra began with tenderness in her voice that, with how seriously Robin had been taking the team lately, she rarely had the chance to use. "You can tell me anything."

He almost did not believe her at first. "A…anything?" She nodded. "You sure?" Again her head moved in response. He paused, a little cautious and more than a little fearful, before he said, "If…if I tell you this, you promise to still be my friend?"

"Beast Boy," she said again. She got up off her bed and walked across the room to sit next to her friend on the semicircular couch. "Beast Boy, you couldn't say anything that would make me stop being your friend."

Looking at her in surprise, he asked, "You mean it?"

She took his gloved hand in hers and looked straight into his muddled, cloudy green eyes, and she said to him, "I mean it." As if that were not enough, the way she had said those three words had made it impossible to even conceive the possibility that she could have been lying.

"Okay," he conceded, content that this was something he could confer safely to her. "Back in the bank, when I got thrown into the vault by Robin—"

"Which was an accident," she interjected.

"Yeah, an accident. Yeah, so after that…yeah. I think… I think I saw Slade in the vault with me."

"_Slade? _Really? Are you sure?" She did not think it was possible; surely Robin would have known if Slade were there.

"I think. I mean, I don't know what he looks like, but yeah. He was, like, seriously tall and _way_ creepy."

"Sounds like him, yeah. Wait," she decided to ask as it hit her, "why would that make me not want to be your friend any more? If anything, it just strengthens our friendship."

"Because, uhm—" Beast Boy started, but was again cut off by the dual signal of both his and Terra's communicators. Relieved to get out of the conversation, he pulled out the small beeping disc and got up off the couch. "Come on. Robin needs us." He walked out of their room and only looked back once, to make sure that Terra was following behind him.

«IL»

"Hello, Titans. It's a pleasure to talk to you again," the cold, smooth voice on the monitor said.

Robin scowled and spoke the name of the person on the screen through clenched teeth. "Slade. What do you want?"

"Now, now, Robin. If I tell you that, that would ruin the fun." The man could have been laughing behind his mask, from the tone in his voice. "I have placed six bombs in specific places around the city. You have forty minutes to find them all and deactivate them. If one explodes, they all do." The man behind the mask glared at and through the Titans, and they could all tell that he was smiling a sick, twisted grin behind the orange and black. "Tick-tock, Titans." The image flickered out of existence.

The congregation was stunned.

"How are we to find these explosive weapons if he left us no indication of their locations?" Starfire asked, already knowing the answer.

"We start looking," Robin said before giving orders. "Cyborg: Run a scan of the city, and do it as quickly as you can. We don't have enough time for a fully extensive one. Search the important locations in government and for citizens. That includes the Tower and the surrounding area."

"What shall the rest of us do?"

"We wait until Cyborg finishes the scan."

"Uhm, dudes," Beast Boy tried to jump in.

"Robin," Cyborg said, "it's gonna take about ten minutes."

"Ten minutes? We don't _have _ten minutes!"

"Dudes…"

"Jump City's a big place with a big social scene. If you want me to hit everything you want, you gotta wait."

"Great. We've already got a time limit to worry about and now it's just going to be shorter!"

"Look, Robin, I'm sorry, but that's how it's done!"

"Dudes!" Beast Boy yelled, which did manage to get the attention he wanted.

Robin, already frustrated with Slade first and now Cyborg, ground his teeth. "What, Beast Boy?"

"What if he's not attacking the stuff you think he's attacking? What if he knows you think he's attacking the popular places and he's making you think that because he knows you'll go to the wrong places?"

After working through the phrasing, Raven said to Robin, "He has bad English, but a good point. Slade's lied to us before about bombs. Remember?"

"Please, friend Raven, do not mention that any more. We have passed those very bad times."

"No, Star, she's right," Cyborg said. "And so's BB. Robin, a full scan is going to take twenty, maybe twenty-five. It'll only give us fifteen minutes, but it'll guarantee us a result. We'll find every last one of them."

"You think we can get to and deactivate six bombs in fifteen minutes? Are you crazy? We'll never be able to do it! There's just not enough time!"

"There can be enough time," Terra said from the back of the room, next to Beast Boy. "We could split up. Six of them, six of us."

"Considering Slade was telling the truth," Raven reminded.

"It's still a risk! It's too dangerous!"

"Robin, it's a risk we have to take. Either we do the full scan of the city, or we don't find all the bombs and the city gets destroyed." Cyborg sighed. "I'm doing the full scan. It's the only thing we can do to keep the city completely safe."

"_If Beast Boy had just kept his mouth shut, we could have been halfway to finding those bombs by now!"_ Robin's thoughts stewed in his head. He glared at Beast Boy in much the same fashion that Slade had glared at the Titans before his face had left their presence.

"_Why is he so ticked at me? All I did was try to help," _Beast Boy thought. And again Slade's words echoed in his head without him even calling them up.

"_**Does he think that you're not necessary?"**_

He turned away from the group, away from Robin, and walked to the door of the main room of Titans Tower. "Call me in twenty-five," he said over one shoulder and walked out the door.


	4. Exposed

Disclaimer: It's really difficult to come up with a snappy way to say that I don't own the Titans every chapter.

* * *

The boy was lying down on the semicircular couch in the room he was just borrowing for the moment. Just lying there and going over the events of the day – not even a day – so far. Two minor attacks and now they wanted him to go up against the main villain of the city? Sure, he had some experience from Steel City, but the biggest threat he had had to face there was a time-traveling weirdo in a gold suit.

But this Slade guy? All he had was the "weirdo in a suit" part. And Warp had never been a terrorist. Control Freak had never threatened Beast Boy directly. The Game Master had never attacked the entire city. This Slade guy really was a nutcase.

_"Yeah, he's crazy,"_ Beast Boy thought, _"but he's not wrong."_ Robin and Raven didn't seem to like him. Cyborg hadn't said a word to him. Starfire liked him, but Starfire liked everybody. The only one in his mind who actually liked him was Terra. If there were anyone he would stay for, it would be her. But with the leader of the Titans against him, it wouldn't take long.

He would have to leave the Titans one way or another. He would rather it be by his choice.

_"But where'll I go from there?"_ That was a big problem. _"I can't go back home; my parents'll make me stop doing this. And if I go somewhere else, what if the same thing happens?"_ He moaned and put his hands on the sides of his head. "What am I gonna do?"

At that point, the door slid open, which broke Beast Boy's pensive state and got him to sit up. Without even looking, he asked, "Is the scan done?"

"Not yet." Blonde hair came into Beast Boy's sight as Terra walked from the door to sit on the other end of the couch. "That's not why I came here," she said with noticeable concern. "You've been acting weird since the bank. Is there something you're not telling us?"

_"Yeah. For a reason."_ "No, nothing. I told you everything. I saw Slade at the bank and he seriously creeped me out." He smiled nervously, the way someone does when a subject comes up that they want to avoid as much as possible.

"Beast Boy," Terra said again with the same tone. She recognised the face; she had had to use it herself a few times. "If you're going to be part of the Titans, we can't keep secrets from each other." It was unclear whether by "we" she meant the entirety of the Titans or just they two; in truth, even she was unsure. She left it ambiguous.

Now she had the entirety of his attention. "What did you just say?"

"I said that you're a part of the Titans." She grinned. "I know it's only been a couple of hours, but you helped more than you think. Robin didn't tell you the whole truth about the bank thing."

Beast Boy perked without immediately knowing why. "He didn't? What did he leave out?"

"That accident distracted Jinx enough for us to get a handle on her. She wasn't expecting something like that to happen, and that broke her concentration on the fight." She laughed a little, remembering the event. "It's funny. She was in the middle of another one of her bad luck attacks when she lost focus. It backfired on her and she actually launched herself backwards into the wall. She stunned herself long enough for Robin to bind her.

"Without you, we might not have stopped her." She was still wearing that smile that said that she meant every last word. "I don't care what Robin thinks. Only a true Teen Titan could have done something like that."

"Really?" The conversation was getting familiar. "Thanks. Uhm, a lot." But something was still troubling him. If it was such a big deal that he got knocked into that vault, why did it still feel like he was unwanted?

"Any time. Now, with that out of the way," and her caring smile fell to an inquisitive look, "maybe you could tell me why you've been acting weird lately."

"Huh? Oh, right," he remembered. That was what they had been talking about. "I can't tell you that, but I know why I can't this time."

"Why?"

"'Cause it's not true any more." He returned the smile she had had, and Terra was glad to bring it back to her face, as well.

"I'm going to ask Cy about the scan. I'll be right back." She got up slowly, still a little worried about Beast Boy even though he did seem to be better. The door opened for her even as she walked to it backwards, not wanting to take her eyes from him, and slid closed again.

Beast Boy slumped back down again. He was good at faking that smile; he had had to use it on his parents several times when he was out fighting crime against their wishes. "What am I gonna do?" he moaned again. "I can't do this. I can't desert her." His voice had grown more miserable than he thought was possible. "But Robin doesn't like me, and he'll get everyone else to not like me, too…" Time was short for him. "What am I gonna do?" He knew the options he had; deciding on one would be the difficult part.

He could stay with the Titans and hope that Robin would wind up not hating him. He could also stay with them and not care about what Robin says or does. Or he could run. He could run with no idea of where to turn and no idea of what to do. Follow the police reports for a while and foil some small-time villains; yeah, he could do that. But how long would that keep him busy? More importantly, how long would that keep him fed?

"I can't leave." If for no other reason than the free meals – oh, he had seen the fridge – he had to stay for a little while longer, at least. Of course, the food was not the only reason. "I'll do this for her." For the only one who seemed to genuinely like him.

He heard the door open again, but this time he looked before asking anything. All he saw was the heel of a brown sneaker disappear off into the hallway before the door closed.

«IL»

"We got 'em!" Cyborg announced. The scan was complete. Two minutes prior, Terra had returned to her room to get Beast Boy; now all six Titans were assembled in the main room again.

Robin's eyes darted between the six orange "S" marks on the screen. "There's one at the library," he said, "one at the bridge, and the third's at the docks." He knew they should have just checked the popular locations. Beast Boy had wasted their all-too-precious time unnecessarily. Robin grumbled.

Cyborg picked up where Robin left off. "The fourth one's in the abandoned stadium, and the last two are in a warehouse and a run-down construction site. Weird. Why'd he pick such random places?"

"There's no time to worry about that," Robin insisted. "We only have fifteen minutes to get all of them. Raven, you take the one in the library. Starfire, you get the docks; Cyborg, the stadium. Terra and Beast Boy, you two get the ones at the warehouse and construction site. I'll cover the bridge.

"I'm trusting all of you on this. You'll have to work quickly and accurately. We don't know what kind of bombs these are. Hopefully Slade made them easy to defuse, but we can't take that chance. Get there as quickly as you can so you can have the most time for defusing them."

Terra joked about him in her head. _"We'd get there a lot more quickly if you'd just say—"_

"Titans! Go!"

"_There it is,"_ Terra finished. She grabbed Beast Boy by the arm to get his attention. "Need a lift?"

He shook his head. "Nah. I can fly there."

"The communicator's also a map. Just so you actually know how to get there."

"Thanks," he said, a little embarrassed that she had to tell him that, since he only thought the communicator was for communicating.

"Well, you heard Robin. We have to get there quickly. Good luck, Beast Boy." With those words, she waved at him and ran out the door of the main room. He watched her jump from an open window at the end of the hallway, tear up a chunk of earth to place beneath her feet, and disappear into the sky.

Beast Boy started walking down the hallway and looked at his communicator to get an idea of the route to take. He reached the window, closed his hand around the device, and paused. "How am I gonna do this?" He would have to carry the communicator with him; he could, after all, get lost. Never having to do something like that before, he only thought of one solution and went on it.

The communicator would leave a very bad taste in his mouth, but it was the only way he could carry it to where he had to go. Holding it between his teeth, he transformed himself into a hawk and departed from the open window, trying to keep the route on his mind.

«IL»

The flight had taken less time than he had expected; not that he was counting, but he guessed he had about ten, maybe eight minutes left to find the bomb and get rid of it. Of course, he had gotten sidetracked a few times when he had not been thinking about his route but rather what he would do after the mission, so the flight had taken significantly longer than it would have taken had he traveled a straight path.

He landed on the crossbar of a rusted yellow crane and turned back into a human boy again. Wholly surprised that he was able to balance on the narrow metal bar, he opened his mouth and took out the moist metal disc. "Yecch." He wiped it on his clothes before he opened it to locate his target.

"_That's weird,"_ he noticed. The orange S on his communicator was moving. Quickly. First it was directly in front of him, where a pile of cinder blocks rested on a platform. Then it jumped to the left, just behind what looked like a part of the sign for whatever was being built. And to the left again, so that he had to physically turn his body to keep up with it. And finally, before he could realise what was going on, it was dead center on his communicator screen – right on top of him.

Something came down hard and set the crossbar at an angle, the shock of which jarred Beast Boy and shook the communicator from his hand, sending it plummeting to the ground by way of the arm, body, and treads of the crane. Every time it hit something, he winced, until it was completely broken when it finally reached earth.

His temporary dismay at losing the communicator was replaced with a far more permanent and far less easily placed combination of emotions when he looked up to see what had knocked him off-balance. There was confusion. There was fear. There was doubt; anger; surprise.

In short, there was _him_.

"Slade!"

"Really, Garfield," came the cool voice from behind the mask. "Don't act so surprised. You should have known we were going to meet again."

"Where's the bomb?" Beast Boy knew that failing the Titans was definitely not an option; not where he stood. He could not let Slade get in the way of his mission.

Slade laughed once, a sharp noise that, if it were not so well placed, could have been accidental. "You mean this?" He held up a small circle, glowing orange, between his fingers. "A homing device." It too fell to the ground; Slade had no further use for it. "A distraction. There never were any bombs, Garfield. It's a shame your friends won't be able to tell you that." He looked quickly at the remains of the communicator far below, but his voice implied something different.

"Why?" He knew the obvious answer; it was the rest, the unsaid part that he wanted to know.

The masked man jumped from his end of the crossbar to the base of the arm. Without saying a word, he punched the base and sent vibrations strong enough to completely knock his target off, which he did succeed in doing. Beast Boy quickly changed into a flying squirrel and glided down to stand on the treads of the crane.

"Why won't they be able to tell me?" he repeated, looking up at Slade, once he had a working mouth again.

Slade jumped again and landed just behind Beast Boy. He raised one fist and finally answered, "Because they won't be able to find you." Before Beast Boy could decipher what Slade meant, the fist came down hard. Slade did not even grace Beast Boy with a last look at his face before the blackness overtook the small boy's vision.


	5. Delusion

Author's Note: This is likely the penultimate chapter in this fic, unless Ch6 turns out to be too long for one chapter to reasonably be. It's all coming to an end, people.

Disclaimer: Titans. Don't own 'em.

* * *

The view over the bridge was absolutely spectacular. The way the sunset reflected off Jump City's main river would have been the perfect romantic moment, had the only person standing on the bridge at the time been concerned with romance.

"Beast Boy isn't answering," Robin said to the others from his post at the bridge. Robin was not so interested in discovering why, but the rest of the Titans had other ideas.

"Well, let's check it out. He's at the construction site, right?" Cyborg asked without looking for an answer. "I'll check if he's okay." Starfire and Terra audibly agreed to his plan, and even though Raven said nothing, Cyborg knew she would follow through.

Robin sighed and severed his connection with the others. Beast Boy had caused him enough problems already; his heart rate, for one, was yet to return to normal after that whole fiasco with Slade. Raven had been right; there weren't any bombs at all. Slade had tricked them again and he didn't even have the guts to show his face – such that it was – for a fair fight. What did Slade want from them?

He sighed again and boarded the R-Cycle, then opened the communicator again and activated the map. After placing the communicator in its circular holder on the dashboard and securing it, he kicked off the ground and began his drive to the site.

«IL»

The Titans, regrouped, could find no clues as to Beast Boy's whereabouts at the construction site. Robin would not dare say it out loud but he thought that could have been more a good thing than anything else.

It was no use. They had combed every last inch of the site and found nothing, not even the traces of his communicator. Terra, feeling absolutely miserable that they lost somebody she actually liked so quickly – too quickly – pressed her back against the nearest flat surface and slid down to the yellow base of the crane she stood on.

Something about it seemed…off, though. It was noticeably not flat. There was a slump about midway through; she stood up and inspected it. The metal looked crushed, and in the sort of fashion that was no accident. No stray rock could have done what happened; it was human, and very intentional. And there was only one person she knew of who was strong enough to do this.

She called Robin over. "C'mere, look at this," she indicated the dent to him. "Someone did this, and I think it's recent." She already knew the next word to part from Robin's lips; she only hoped it weren't true.

"_Slade_," he practically hissed. "He's got Beast Boy." He looked up from the arm of the crane and turned to Cyborg. "Is there any way you can pinpoint Slade's location?"

"Not without the Tower computer," Cyborg confessed, "and even then it would be nearly impossible. It's configured to do surface scans, but Slade's base could be underground. It might not even be in Jump City."

"Robin," Raven started, "why don't we check his old base? You know where it is—"

"Raven," Starfire tried to interject with concern in her voice, but Raven ignored her.

"—already, and maybe there will be some clues there as to where he's hiding now."

"That's a good idea, Raven, but if Slade is half as smart as I think he is, he's already destroyed his old base and relocated." Robin gave a quick apologetic glance to Terra before he continued. "So there's no way to find him. We can only wait until he attacks again." It was definitely not something he wanted to admit, but when he saw Cyborg nod in response, he left himself with no other choice. "Let's get back to the Tower. We'll work it out as soon as we can."

Terra did not need to be told twice. She was the first to leave the scene and the first to arrive back at the Tower. Nobody, not even Starfire (with whom she had the greatest rapport of all the Titans – save, of course, Beast Boy), could coax her out of her room for dinner, video games, "the mall of shopping", or anything of that sort. And for good reason.

Yes, it had only been a few hours, but it had been a busy few hours. She and Beast Boy had gotten to fight alongside once, and he had saved her once – granted it was a rather ridiculous threat she had faced, but still, it stood that he had saved her. They had talked about issues very close to him, which, as she had said, only served to strengthen their friendship. He had gotten the Titans a free lunch, though that was fairly low on her list of priorities.

And she had overheard him saying that he would do…something for her. What had he said? He had said that…that he wanted to leave, but he resolved that he would not leave, in the end. He said that he would stay for her. That only proved that he felt the same way about her as she felt about him.

She had seen what Slade did to people. She was there when Slade had taken Robin as his apprentice. If Beast Boy really were with Slade, then she knew the next time she would see him…

She swallowed hard and buried her head in her pillow, not wanting to even think of that. And yet, the harder she tried not to think about it, the more prominent it became in her mind. The next time she would see Beast Boy, he would be working for Slade. She would have to fight him.

Another reality that could not be admitted. Another truth that could not be fought. And so Terra told herself that it would not end up that way. It would be different this time. Robin was different from Beast Boy; Beast Boy would know where his loyalties really were. Beast Boy would be a survivor. He could fight Slade, and he would win. And he would come back.

It was just something beautiful to mask the ugly truth. An irresistible lie. The problem, though, was that Terra knew it was a lie, even though she sorely wanted to believe it.

As the moon rose on Titans Tower, Terra was the first to cry herself to sleep.

«IL»

_"Garfield…"_

"_Garfield."_

"Wake up, Garfield."

Beast Boy groaned and clutched his forehead in his hand. Still dazed, he asked, "Wh…where am I?"

The mask glinted. "Garfield, you are where you belong."

"I belong with the Titans!" he protested with his eyes still half-closed to protect his still-adjusting eyes from the bright and flickering light coming from a large screen in front of him.

"You don't really believe that, do you?" He put one gloved hand, rough and stiff to the touch, under Beast Boy's chin and pushed his head upright. "Look how quickly they gave up searching for you." On the screen he was now forcing Beast Boy to watch was a live feed from the construction site. For a while, the image of Robin just standing there and talking was prominent.

But then the image on the screen changed to focus on Terra. Beast Boy watched in absolute disbelief as she just tore up a chunk of earth and flew off without so much as glancing back.

He stared with wide eyes even when the screen turned itself off and the image was no longer there. "You don't belong with them," he heard Slade say, but it seemed far off from his own thoughts. _"Terra…she would do that? She heard me talking earlier…is it my fault? Does she still like me after she heard all that?"_

"You don't belong with them, Garfield. You belong with me." Slade did not phrase it as if it were a choice, but an obligation. "I can give you everything they could not: Importance. Acceptance. Worth."

He had been searching for a place where he would be accepted; that was definitely true. And though the closest he had come to that had been the Titans, he knew that he was wrong about Terra. She did not feel the same way as he did for her; or at least, if she had once, she did no longer. And with the Titans' only saving grace gone from him…

"I'll do it," he said. Slade nodded and behind his mask, smiled.

«IL»

Two weeks had passed since that night at the construction site. The other Titans had seemed to have forgotten about what happened that night completely, instead indulging in some insane events involving a double of Robin from another universe. Terra did not participate, though, because she rarely left her room aside from having to eat and thus had not been present during the entire alternate universe fiasco. From what she could tell, though, it resolved itself fairly well. Not that she cared much.

She left her room to eat breakfast on the fifteenth day since Beast Boy's disappearance. It was a late breakfast – closer to lunch than anything – but she knew Cyborg would have waffles for her anyway. He had been the most attentive to her problems over the past fortnight, with Raven in close second. Robin and Starfire were often off in their own little world, and it had been that way ever since Robin had been forced to go to prom with the human daughter of a giant moth. She was still trying to figure that out.

"The usual, Terra?" Cyborg asked, knowing the answer, as she walked into the main room. He was finishing his breakfast, which he had made only recently, so the toaster was still warmed up. He stood up with his plate, belched slightly, and walked over to the sink, where he deposited his plate and picked up a clean one, then from the sink to the freezer to grab two waffles, and from there to the toaster to prepare her food.

"You doing any better today?" he asked while he was loading up the waffles. He was not expecting a positive answer, so he was not surprised when he turned around and she was hanging her head. "It's been hard for me, too. Not as hard, obviously, but still. He was cool to have around, no matter what Robin thought about him. And I really wish I could find Slade's base, but I just don't have the equipment for it."

"It's okay, Cyborg." It was not okay and they both knew it. "You've apologized enough. It's not even your fault. Slade'll have to come back eventually, and when he does, we can track him then."

"You sure you can wait that long?" As soon as he said it, he knew it was the wrong thing to have asked. Terra stammered and he covered his tracks. "You don't have to answer that." Before she could say anything else, the toaster dinged and Terra's breakfast popped out of the slots. Cyborg turned around and put the two waffles on the plate next to the toaster, grabbed a clean knife and fork, picked up the plate, and gave the meal over to Terra.

She took the plate with a "thanks, Cyborg," and moved to the fridge looking for something suitable to drink. Cyborg left the kitchen part of the main room and walked to the large screen that was going through its daily visual scan of the city, as requested by Terra thirteen days before, and stopped. He stopped because the scan had stopped; it had stopped on a very unsettling image, at that. Cyborg's jaw dropped from the shock. "No way," he said in a more hushed voice than usual.

"'No way' what, Cyborg?" Terra asked, her head pulling out of the fridge. She would just have to drink water with her breakfast this morning.

"Uh, Terra, trust me. You don't wanna see this." He had only her interests in mind saying that.

She walked over to where he was standing and started to ask, "See wh—", but when she looked at the screen, the words just stopped. A plate shattered on the floor, but that was the only sound.


	6. Truth

Disclaimer: It's been six chapters of AU goodness and I still don't own the Titans. I must not be trying hard enough.

* * *

She didn't want the alarm to sound. If the alarm sounded, Robin would be here, and Robin would want to fight him. And Starfire would be here, and Starfire probably would not want to fight him, but she would still go with whatever Robin said. And Raven, and she would just not care; she never showed that she cared for him anyway. And Terra knew that Cyborg did not want to fight him, if only for the sake of her feelings. 

And of course, there was no possible way she could fight him. And so she hoped, hoped that the alarm would not sound; that he would go unnoticed and that they could just keep living as normally as they could.

The alarm, of course, sounded. She managed to break her gaze from the screen long enough to look at Cyborg and plead to him, "Turn it off." Her voice shook; it was clear that she was fighting back tears. "He's not doing anything wrong. Turn it off. Please." Terra knew it would only be a temporary solution; eventually he would be doing something wrong and they—_she_ would have to face him, but it was still a solution. It would only prolong the inevitable, but she did not care.

Cyborg raised his arm to the level of his chest and pressed the screen on his forearm; the alarm stopped abruptly and the screen flickered off. Terra smiled at him, but her face dropped when Robin burst into the room with Raven and Starfire following.

"Where's the trouble?" Robin asked Cyborg hastily.

"False alarm, Robin," he said. "Just testing the system. It was due for a tune-up." He looked only slightly embarrassed to have brought them all here for nothing, even if there were some possibly legitimate threat out there, closer than he could have thought. "Sorry for bringing y'all he—"

His apology was cut short by a vibration that ran through the tower like an earthquake. Raven looked at Terra, who shook her head and crossed her arms in front of her. The viewscreen turned itself on, as Cyborg had wired it to do were there ever a disturbance, and showed a suspiciously green finned dinosaur recovering from ramming the base of the tower and rearing up to attack it again.

"It's him." Robin said what was in everyone's thoughts.

"But what is he doing?" Starfire asked to nobody in particular.

"He's…attacking us," the Boy Wonder replied incredulously, but quickly regained his composure. "Well? We have to stop him! Titans! Go!"

Nobody moved.

Starfire protested his decision. "But Beast Boy is our friend; we cannot attack him. It would not be right!"

"He attacked us first," Raven said. "It's self-defense. Besides, he was taken by Slade and likely works for him now. He's not our friend anymore."

Robin looked at Starfire expectantly. "I suppose…" she began, still uncertain but not wanting to displease Robin or defy logic, "if we must fight him, then fight him I shall."

Their leader nodded and motioned for the Titans to move out, all but one of whom did. Robin turned and almost ordered Terra to come, but Cyborg raised a flat hand and silently told him not to get her involved in this yet. Though he did not want to admit it, Robin knew that Cyborg was right; he didn't know what Terra had seen in Beast Boy, but it would only bring trouble if she saw what was in him now. He left her there and trailed Cyborg out of the Tower.

«IL»

It had been a rough trip down to the base of the tower: Beast Boy had kept a steady rhythm of ramming until the Titans appeared before them. When he saw the four of them, he transformed into a human boy again. Slade had let him keep his purple leotard, but on his chest there was a large circular "S" emblazoned in orange and black.

Wait. Four? He counted again: Robin, Cyborg, Raven, and Starfire. Terra was not there. For the best, he thought; he could not afford to let his feelings for her, such that they once were, get in the way. Besides, the fewer Titans he had to face, the better his chances were of accomplishing what Slade had sent him here for. And how convenient; that was the first thing Robin always wanted to know.

"Beast Boy," Robin asked with a mix of concern and confusion in his voice, "what are you doing?"

"About time you paid attention to me," he spat back. "I'm here for you, Robin. Only you. The rest of you, get out. It's none of your business."

"If you really know us as well as you say," Raven began.

"Then you know it's all for one," Robin finished her sentence for her. "If you came for me, you came for all of us." He noticed that the brave look of someone devoted to a mission did not waver from Beast Boy's face. Beast Boy was actually serious. "I didn't want to do this, but…Titans! Go!" Cyborg and Starfire were reluctant to enter battle, but he and Raven ran forward together as soon as he had shouted.

Robin unlatched three freeze bombs from his utility belt, placed them between his fingers, and threw them at a human Beast Boy with a grunt. All three bombs connected at, respectively, his leg, chest, and arm, and the ice spread to encase his entire body. Robin looked satisfied, but Raven had learned from experience. With the familiar three-word chant, she tore up some rocks from the area around the base of the tower and aimed them at the frozen statue, but waited to fire until, as she had known would happen, Beast Boy broke free of the ice. More quickly than she thought he had time to react, she moved her arms and flung the debris at him. Her prediction was correct; Beast Boy was hit with the brunt of her attack and, after Raven let her control over the rocks go, was buried completely under the resultant pile. Robin looked at her quickly and almost smiled.

It was only almost because he was interrupted by the sound of a rockslide being caused by a mammoth of formidable size. Rather than use his practically prehensile trunk to fling the boulders back at Raven and Robin, Beast Boy simply transformed back into a green boy when he had gotten himself out from underneath the rocks. _"Slade said don't fight back,"_ he reminded himself. _"'Don't fight back until you get Robin alone'."_ He knew Slade was right, too; he knew the Titans would not let themselves attack an enemy who would not fight back. They really were too caught up on the whole 'honour' thing. He followed his master's orders and just repeated, "I'm here for Robin."

Robin heard Cyborg and Starfire sigh in relief from behind him, presumably because they did not have to fight, but paid them little attention. "We already told you. If you want me, you'll have to take on all of us."

"I'm not fighting until I get what I came for," Beast Boy returned in a voice that sounded all too similar to someone else's. "And I'm not leaving until I fight."

"Then what threat are you to us?" Raven asked in a monotone. Robin nodded once in agreement before turning to face Beast Boy again.

"I can make your lives miserable without fighting," he said. Just what Slade had told him to say. "Ramming the tower? Just the beginning. Do you know what I can do with these powers? Gnaw security wires. Break open cell doors. Knock out guards." He smiled darkly. "I could release every last criminal in the city. Everyone you've ever put away, back immediately. Mumbo. Jinx. Plasmus. Cinderblock. Overload. I could go on, but you get my point." He had no intent of actually doing any of those things, but he had to agree to say that he would, at the very least. "What'll it be, Robin? Do we talk mano-a-mano, or…?" He let the end of the sentence hang in the air.

The choice was obvious and almost immediate for Robin. What was one criminal compared to twenty-five, fifty, one hundred? If he conceded to Beast Boy now, it would more likely than not be better for the city later, and the safety of the city was his first priority. He turned around completely to face the other three Titans and told them his rationalization. "Go inside. Watch me from the screen. If I'm in real danger, you can come back down; otherwise, stay in the tower until I'm finished." He paused and, as an afterthought, added, "And see what you can do for Terra, too."

Cyborg and Raven acknowledged his decision, though neither thought it was the absolute smartest thing to do, and left the scene of the impending battle. Only Starfire stayed behind. "You are sure you will be all right?" she asked him.

He fully smiled at her, a comforting grin to allay her fears. "I'm sure, Star. I'll be okay." Appearing satisfied with his confirmation, she too finally left. When she was gone, he muttered, "I wasn't in the same position for nothing," and turned back to Beast Boy again. "I'm all alone," he said in a louder voice. "Now, let's talk."

The green youth did not respond with words, but rather changed form into a green-and-black cheetah and, claws and teeth bared and gleaming in the mid-afternoon sun, sprinted towards Robin who, at the last second, jumped over Beast Boy's figure and landed behind him. He snarled, whipped around, and transformed again into something he knew Robin could not leap: _Tyrannosaurus rex_. Robin, still recovering from the leap, could not get out of the way quickly enough; the enormous Tyrannosaur jaws clamped down on his cape and had him trapped. Beast Boy lifted his adversary up by the incredibly strong material in his jaws and tilted back his head. He was about to open his jaws and swallow Robin whole when his captive unlatched a metal pole from his belt and extended it into Beast Boy's beady reptilian eye, which caused him to roar in pain and thus release his prey.

Propelled by his staff, Robin landed safely several feet away while Beast Boy had to return to his original form to rub his sore eye, which was just beginning to turn red. The former took advantage of the opportunity. "Beast Boy, listen to me. I was Slade's apprentice once. I've been where you are. You don't have to do this. Whatever he gave you, we can give you the same thing. We don't have to be fighting."

He threw his hand down from his eye as an idle threat. "You know what Slade gave me? He gave me acceptance. He made me feel like I was worth something to somebody. You never gave me that, Robin!"

"What? Beast Boy, we let you join us. We made you feel like you were worth it. We accepted you." It was a bit presumptuous of him to say that, he knew, but it was what he felt was the truth. Being a part of the Teen Titans should have made anybody feel their own worth.

Again, Beast Boy did not respond with words, opting instead to change into a bull, angry and snorting. _"He's no bullfighter, but he's still got the cape,"_ he thought just before charging. Robin again tried to employ his bo staff, but Beast Boy had become very aware of the threat; as the metal came towards him, he tilted his horns so that the staff would collide and bounce off harmlessly which, much to Robin's dismay, was what happened. By the time the impact of the situation had hit him, the impact of the bull was about to; he had no other choice but to drop and roll out of the way of the rampaging animal coming his way. When he did so, Beast Boy did manage to miss his target, but as he passed two of his hooves trampled Robin's staff and broke it into several pieces, leaving it out of the fight permanently.

Robin had not had time to properly protect himself from the terrain when he had rolled out of the way and had managed to slam his foot against a rock and kick it out of the way, which had left him injured only enough to prevent him from immediately springing back to his feet. Beast Boy skidded to a halt and once again changed to his normal form, then in Robin's moment of incapacitation walked over to his face-up body and stood at his head. He looked down and finally said something.

"You always said I was a weapon, Robin." He fully intended to prove how right Robin had been. Still standing over his former leader's head, he turned into a crocodile and opened his jaws to the width of Robin's head. The pain in Robin's foot prevented him from leaping away, the position he was in made it difficult to lift from his waist, and if he rolled to either side he would impale himself on the crocodile's teeth.

Suddenly, the slab of earth underneath Beast Boy rose up, threw him into the air, then came to his side and bludgeoned him, sending him flying into the river. It was another thing she had not wanted to do, but she could not bear to see Beast Boy like that, so easily one to take another's life. It was not the Beast Boy she knew. She had had to step in, and so she had. Ignoring Robin, she ran over to where she had seen the crocodile land.

«IL»

Beast Boy was rubbing his head, preemptively nursing a nasty bruise he knew would develop, when he saw out of his good eye the blond hair of a girl he once knew very well; a girl he once thought he loved. But no more. "Why did you do that?" He had been interrupted in the middle of a mission that he knew he was going to win. He had had Robin right there!

She looked at him sadly. "What happened to you, Beast Boy? Why did you join Slade?" Terra knew that some part of him would still have the old Beast Boy she knew and wanted.

"He accepted me! He treated me like a person!"

"_I_ treated you like a person!" she argued.

"_You _didn't even bother to _look_ for me!" Even Robin could hear his voice now, his pitch had escalated so much. "You call that treating me like a person? I thought we were friends, Terra!"

"We _are _friends, Beast Boy!"

"_Friends_ look for other friends when they go missing!"

"I _did_ look for you!"

"For how long?"

He had her there. She could not think of any retaliation; she had, admittedly, not searched for Beast Boy for very long at all. Not as long as she could have, at least.

"That's what I thought," he said when she gave no response. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have business to take care of that doesn't invol—"

"I cried for you!" she shouted at him out of nowhere. He stopped mid-sentence. Now he was the one struck dumb. "I cried for you, Beast Boy. From the day you left until last night, I cried for you. For two weeks, I cried for you." Tears were welling up in her eyes even as she said it. "Now tell me we're not friends, Beast Boy."

He stood there for a few moments, thinking of something to say. Nobody had ever cried for him and let him know about it. In fact, he was sure nobody had ever cried for him at all. His parents? No. His parents probably could not be any happier right now, now that their freak of a son was out of their lives. And that was all he had. He had his parents, and he had the Titans.

No. No, he did not have the Titans. He had Terra. The other Titans showed nothing like that to him. He could be friends with Terra, yes, but he still had to fight Robin, and he still could serve Slade. He was in the middle of explaining that to Terra when he took a third blow to his head from a green-gloved fist and fell down, knocked out cold.

"Thanks for running interference, Terra," Robin said to her. "I never would have gotten him otherwise."

But Terra was anything but gracious for Robin's thanks. "Robin, what did you just do? I wasn't running interference! I was talking to him!" The tears that she had been holding back started trailing down her face, but she would not let Robin see them. She turned away from him and ran back into the tower and did not look back.

«IL»

After the sun had set, Robin went to Terra's room and knocked on her door. Her eyes were still red when she answered, and the only reason she let him in in the first place was because Starfire, who had joined Terra earlier in the evening in an attempt to comfort her without knowing why she had been crying, requested that she let him in.

"Terra, I'm sorry," he began. She did not even try to stop him. "Beast Boy turned into a criminal. He was working for Slade, he attacked our tower, and he tried to kill me. I had to do what I did; I just wish I hadn't had to do it in front of you. And I really had no idea that you and he were just talking. If I had known that, you know I wouldn't have done that.

"But he isn't dead, for whatever that's worth." He tried to smile at that, but seeing that neither Terra nor Starfire were in any condition to do so, he returned to a straight face and continued. "He's in prison for an indefinite amount of time, in a special cell where Slade can't get to him. And since he's in prison now, Slade won't have any more use for him. You only get one chance to fail Slade." And now he spoke from experience. "So when his sentence is over, the next time you see him, he won't be Slade's apprentice any more. And when that happens," and there he paused. Would it be a good idea to let Beast Boy back in, after what he, Robin, had done to him? He looked at Terra, and at Starfire, and then down at the threshold of Terra's room, then back to Terra.

"When that happens, we'll let him in again. And this time, it'll be permanent."

She looked at him with a strange mix of sadness, anger, relief, and happiness in her red eyes. "You know I'm not going to be able to forgive you that easily, right?" He nodded. "Starfire, you can leave now. I'm going to bed." The Tamaranean complied, and she and Robin left the room together to the sound of Terra's door sliding closed. She did not even intend to change into her pajamas; the sooner she got to sleep, the better, and that would involve doing the fewest other things possible. Instead of taking her bed as she was accustomed to, she curled herself along the curve of the couch and slept there, in the black shirt and denim shorts she had been wearing only a few hours ago.

«IL»

The sun shone bright on Terra's face the next morning; too bright for her tastes. She got up off her couch and walked to the open window across from her that she could have sworn she had remembered to close the previous night. She pulled the window closed and drew the curtains to block the sun, and was about to move back to her couch when she noticed a small piece of paper that had fluttered from the curtains to the floor. Turning it over from the blank side on which it had landed, she discovered it was a note. She read.

_Terra,_

_We _are_ friends, and we always will be. And now, I'll be the one looking for you._

_Garfield_

For the first time in fifteen days, the blonde-haired girl smiled.

_--FIN--_


End file.
